Raghurama Krishna Raju elected Deputy Speaker of Andhra Pradesh Assembly

 Telugu Desam Party (TDP) MLA K. Raghurama Krishna Raju was Thursday unanimously elected as the Deputy Speaker of the Andhra Pradesh Assembly.

As only one nomination was received for the post, Speaker Ayyannapatrudu announced Raju’s unanimous election.

With this, the posts of both the Speaker and Deputy Speaker have gone to the TDP, which is heading the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government.

Raju had Wednesday filed his nomination and this was endorsed by both the Jana Sena Party (JSP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Several ministers representing the NDA coalition parties had submitted nomination papers to Assembly Secretary General Suryadevara Prasanna Kumar.

The YSR Congress Party (YSRCP), which is the only opposition party in the Assembly, is not attending the ongoing session to protest the denial of the Leader of the Opposition status to Jagan Mohan Reddy.

The TDP says both Ayyannapatrudu and Raghurama Krishna Raju were targeted with false cases by the YSRCP during its rule.

Raju was elected to Lok Sabha from Narsapuram constituency in 2019 on a YSRCP ticket but later raised a banner of revolt against the YSRCP government. The MP was arrested on May 14, 2021, from his residence in Hyderabad in a sedition case. He was booked for speaking against the government and allegedly instigating communal unrest in the state. Raju had alleged that he was tortured in police custody and claimed that there was an attempt on his life. He had accused then Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy of witch-hunting. In February this year, he resigned from the YSRCP and joined the TDP just before the elections. The party fielded him from the Undi constituency in West Godavari district and he won the election held in May.

With the TDP-led NDA government coming to power, Raju lodged a fresh complaint with the police, alleging an attempt on his life during police custody in 2021. In July, Guntur police registered an attempted murder case against Jagan Mohan Reddy and two Indian Police Service (IPS) officers. Apart from Jagan Mohan Reddy, then CID chief P. V. Sunil Kumar, then Intelligence chief Seetharamanjaneyulu, then Additional SP R. Vijaya Paul, then Superintendent of Government General Hospital, Guntur, Dr Prabhavati and others were booked by the police.

Meanwhile, YSRCP parliamentary party leader V. Vijayasai Reddy has congratulated Raju on assuming the role of Deputy Speaker. "I am confident that you will uphold the dignity and decorum of this esteemed position leaving behind the instances of the past and rise above the shadows of yesteryears," he posted on X.